Genjitsu
by shadowcat238
Summary: Full summary inside. Sequel to Ninjitsu, in the Avatar: The Last Airbender section. Years had passed and now someone in the past is trying to destroy the future! The only clue Jake has is an ancient scroll which keeps writing coded messages in red ink.
1. Prologue

**Genjitsu**

* * *

Note: The sequel to 'Ninjitsu' (found at the Avatar: The Last Airbender section of ff dot net) 

Disclaimer: I do not own A:TLA or AD:JL

PS: You're probably going to want to read the prequel first (I'll re-edit it later)

Full summary: Years had passed since Homecoming. Jake, now a sophomore at NYU, can finally take a breather. But not for long. Strange and supernatural occurences all around the world, unpredictable storms, widespread chaos and disaster, disappearances of ancient artifacts, it seemed as if armageddon was coming! For Jake, it all seemed to be connected to the artifacts found in the tombs of his ancestors in Hateruma. Someone was trying to destroy the future from the past. The only clue the American Dragon has is a scroll that keeps scrawling indecipherable messages in red ink by itself. He lost contact with his grandfather. Jake needs to get him back and solve the riddle, but to no avail. As a last-ditch attempt to save the future and the past, he finds another magical item which can imitate other kinds and, making a duplicate Eucronos Hourglass, goes back to Zuko and Katara's time to ask for their help and bring them to the future. But trying to make the two teenagers from the ancient world fit in to the modern one, trying to solve the riddle before it's all too late, and preventing future disasters from happening isn't Jake's only problem for long. Rose came to NYU.

* * *

Prologue 

Years.

He honestly hadn't remembered how long, but it had been years since the Aztec Skulls were destroyed, he'd technically lost Rose, and then they parted from Hong Kong.

It still hurt, but at least the pain was bearable now.

Jake himself had begun to focus more and finally passed 8th grade, no more Rotwood as the reward, and then progressed throughout high school.

Now, he was at NYU majoring in Ancient World History.

Trixie went off to study and travel abroad with her father and Spud…no one honestly knows what happened to him after he told them that his family was moving.

Hayley, being the smarty-pants she was, had skipped a bunch of grades and was now attending Harvard majoring in 4-dragons-knows how many subjects.

At least he was finally away from his dad; he was honestly getting annoying and he still couldn't comprehend why his mother hadn't divorced him yet.

In act of, in Jake's opinion, favoritism, his parents chose to move closer to Harvard and his grandpa, with Fu Dog, moved their shop to a place closer to NYU. The repair shop now doubled as a noodle shop; a place for quick oriental meals and business was going fairly well.

With a little help from workers from the magical dimension, of course.

Brad decided to go to some other college where he thought all he would have to do was play sports and he could stay there and flirt with the 'attractive' girls.

Too bad that near the end of Senior Year, Trixie, Spud and Jake temporarily stole his file and restated that he wanted to go to a very strict all-male college.

It had also been years since the tombs of his ancestors were found on Hateruma.

Most of the artifacts, since the archaeologists on the dig were sponsored by the institution, were now resting in the New York Smithsonian.

Jake didn't see it often anymore, particularly since his grandfather didn't drag him there so he would learn about his history.

He'd learned enough history when he was visiting the ancient times and suggested to his grandfather that there wasn't much of a difference in the world, besides that the history of most of Asia was altered by his visit and bringing of modern things to the Avatar World, and things would better be left untouched. And then he honestly pulled a leaf from his grandfather's book; he said a proverb.

So his grandpa was proud of him and Jake would go to the shop when he had time and helped his grandfather or continued his lessons as the American Dragon.

Despite that the Huntsclan had been erased from history, there were still threats to the magical world (mainly Magical Creatures fighting among one another and the fact that people like Rotwood were still trying to search for proof that magical creatures were real) but a lot less to the point that Jake could make the honor roll in High School and got into NYU with a high-enough test score and had a well-rounded application for college.

Ever since Rose, even though a lot of other girls have asked him out, he usually refused or made up an excuse when he didn't want to seem like an egotistical jerk.

Life was normal for him.

Life was balanced.

In short, life for Jake was cold, unwelcoming and very boring.

* * *

Today was no different than his usual Tuesday; get up, get dressed, get ready, and get into class. 

His first class was Myths of the Ancient World, where they had to hand in an essay. As he sat down, whispers and giggles broke from various groups of girls who were sitting close to him.

Ever since he and Zuko switched bodies and then switched back, Jake had continued what Zuko had started so he was no longer a skinny, pale-skinned Asian he was always stereotyped to be.

"Now. Let us begin again where we left off; with Japanese—." The teacher was cut off with a loud crash of thunder and the lights flicking on and off rapidly.

Whispers of concern and surprise rippled throughout the class and Jake felt a small vibration in his jean pocket.

His grandpa was calling him.

Taking out his cell phone, a present from his parents when he turned 14, he answered it.

"Jake; get down to the New York Smithsonian now." His grandfather's voice began to crackle and break up over the phone.

Suddenly, the lights seemed to have exploded and the room plunged into darkness.

Taking advantage of the pandemonium and his eye of the dragon, Jake 'Dragon Up-ed' and slipped out of a small window near the roof of the building while it was still pitch dark outside.

Violent winds nearly blew him back into the wall and heavy rains began to pour down in a torrid rate.

Still, Jake began to fly forwards.

The weatherman had predicted a warm day; it was nearly the end of August and winter-like storms shouldn't have even begun. What was happening?

Maybe his grandpa had some answers.

* * *

Surprisingly, the doors to the New York Smithsonian were still open despite the sudden storm. 

Running in after switching back to his human form, obviously; since people would probably freak out if they saw a dragon entering the museum, Jake saw Long Shu **(A/N: When I was writing Ninjitsu, I didn't know that his name was actually Lao Shi)** waiting for him.

"The Ancient World section, now!" His grandfather said before Jake could even take a breath.

The two ran, Long Shu was in surprisingly good shape, and upon arriving at the section, the atmosphere instantly turned ominous.

Looking to his left, Jake spotted an old life size painting which came from the Fire Palace which showed of the wedding of Fire Lord Zuko and his bride; Lady Katara of the Southern Water Tribe.

About 5 feet across from the painting, there were the near mint condition wedding gowns, also shown in the painting.

But something was wrong with them.

It was as if the painting was erasing itself; the blue and violets and whites of Katara's gown were being blurred and the color was absorbed into the ancient rice paper.

Jake remembered that her gown, in the painting, from the sash was at least 3 feet long.

Now, looking at it, it looked to be cut off by more than four inches.

Another noticeable difference was that Fire Lord Zuko's face was becoming more and more obscured; as if a shadow was in the painting and slowly inching across his visage.

The wedding gowns also looked to be in synch with the painting; Katara's gown was now strangely deteriorating and losing its color, despite everything the museum tried to do to fix it, and Zuko's dress robes just seemed to become more transparent, just vanishing, before one's very own eyes!

What _was_ happening?

"Jake! Get over here!" his grandpa commanded.

Turning and going to where his grandfather was, Jake saw through the glass display case that a small scroll which strangely couldn't be opened had somehow unraveled itself and a message was appearing like when you hold a message in invisible ink over fire.

The calligraphy was a very ancient one; it wasn't necessarily symbols, but it still didn't look like a writing system; it was like a mix between both.

All of it was written in bright red ink.

So what was it? A warning…or a plea for salvage?

"What do you think is happening, G?" Jake asked; calling Lao Shi the nickname he'd given him.

"I do not know for sure Jake, but it seems that someone is rewriting the future in the past." Long Shu began to fiddle with his beard; a habit Jake new that he would do only when he was very worried.

"So what can we do about it?" Jake asked; turning to the newly written message and trying to memorize the markings on the scroll.

"Do not worry about it; you should go back to college and continue your studies." Long Shu told him.

"But G—!" Jake shouted incredulously.

"Do as I say; I will take care of it. You should focus on being a student now; the threat of the huntsclan is over, young dragon, and this should not be a burden to you. I will recover the Eucronos Hourglass and go back into the past. You, in the meantime, will not interfere with anything and will do nothing except for helping the Magical Creatures when needed. Understood?" Long Shu said firmly.

Jake wanted to protest, but sighed and nodded.

"You'd best get back; your school has probably regained power by now." His grandfather added.

Jake turned, still a bit pessimistic about the fact that he wasn't going on another adventure, and slugged away; not once looking back at his grandfather.

Long Shu sighed when he was sure that Jake was gone.

He hated to see Jake like this, but it was for the best that he did not interfere with the time-space-history continuum again.

Besides, he has probably had enough of being the American Dragon; he has deserved a break and a chance to be a regular person for once in his life.

Long Shu pulled out the Eucronos Hourglass, which he had brought it along just in case, and turned the dials.

He put the necklace on and with a flash, he vanished.

* * *

If you're wondering when Zuko and Katara come in, it'll be a couple more chapters. In the next few chapters, Jake tries to solve the riddle/code himself but has no luck and that'll be the main focus for the time being. 

Review, please.


	2. Chapter 1: It All Begins

Sorry I haven't updated in quite a while; my muse was lacking in this story.

Disclaimer: I do not own American Dragon Jake Long

* * *

Chapter 1: It all begins.

"—Scientists and Meteorologists still have yet to determine why so many storms suddenly hit various regions around the world. Take a look at the footage cameras worldwide taped." The news reporter said.

A second later, cameras showing ominous tornados and dust storms tearing across prairie land, hurricanes and typhoons, tsunamis and floods ravaged coastlines, large lightning storms leading to widespread fires, earthquakes beginning out of near nowhere and scientifically impossible places, volcanoes erupting (even Mount Kilimanjaro and Fuji, which were said to be extinct!) and lava actually exploding from the most unexpected places!

The days had passed and there was no word from his grandfather or Fu Dog, but Jake figured that going into the past, finding out what's wrong and the culprit, apprehending him or her, and coming back would take longer that just a few days…make that 5 days.

Fortunately for him, and because of a slight interference with dormitory assignments due to a few deals with the magical creatures working in the administrative office and a fair share of his powers, Jake had an entire dormitory to himself so he didn't have to look after anyone but himself and he could focus on solving the code.

He'd taken a hand-copied version of the inexplicable message written on the self-unrolling scroll to his linguistics study teacher, but even she (it was surprisingly a female, in Jake's opinion) could not decode any part of the message at all and, when she first saw the 'message' Jake gave her, she asked if the note was a joke or something.

He'd searched all over the internet and, blowing some of the money he'd earned from a campus job and for helping run his grandpa's shop on the weekends and on school days when he had time and the continuous monthly checks his parents sent him to help him pay for tuition and textbooks, bought some old history books programs for his computer to try and decipher the message.

No luck.

But he was able to get a refund for most of his stuff.

Except for some of the history books since the sellers were desperately trying to get rid of them for some reason; they said it was bad luck.

Jake was studying his copied note again when he thought he had heard something knock at his window. Looking up from the note, he saw nothing out the window.

Was the lack of sleep finally getting to him?

The moment he went back to his computer, he heard another tap, more like a thump, against his dorm room window.

Putting down everything, Jake went to the window and opened it.

And promptly leapt backwards out of fright when Fu Dog bounded through the window.

"Fu!" he nearly shouted, but thought the better of it and kept his mouth shut.

Fu looked out of breath and his words came out in short pants.

"Lost—contact—with—gramps—haven't—heard—a—word—from—him—since! Not—even—through—a—enchanted—mirror!" Fu Dog said; his body heaving with fatigue.

"You lost contact of Gramps?" Jake demanded after he strung together what Fu said.

"Didn't I just say that? Anyway, did you have any luck deciphering that message with those new programs?" the shar-pei asked; quickly changing the subject.

"How did you know—?" Jake began to ask.

"Do you really think I can't hack into your online credit account? It said that you purchased an ancient language reference program for your laptop three days ago." Fu stated.

Jake decided it would be best not to start yelling and cause a scene.

"Ok. Let me get this straight; Gramps is literally stuck in the past." Jake said and Fu nodded.

Suddenly, there was a loud knock on his door.

"Quick! In here!" Jake said as he grabbed Fu Dog and shoved him into one of his bunk's drawers under the bottom mattress.

"Geez, Fu! Did you gain weight? Or some extra fat pockets?" Jake asked as he strained to push the drawer closed.

"Hey! Those noodles were loaded with carbs and they were the only things I could eat! Do you know how hard it is for a dog to go into a grocery store?" Fu snapped back as he tried to suck in his gut.

"Mister Long, open the door now!" a female's voice shouted from through the door.

With a shove of his legs, the drawer finally closed.

Jake got up and opened the door.

It was Miss Fletcher; the linguistics study teacher he had first shown the note to.

"Good evening, ma'am." Jake said; trying to stop his eyes from darting to the middle drawer under his bunk bed.

"Jake, I came to tell you that I might have a clue on what your…note says." She said.

"Oh. Ok. Care to come in?" Jake asked; then quickly cursing his manners.

What if Fu just burst from the drawer the instant she sat down somewhere.

"Thank you, Jake." She said.

Miss Fletcher herself was probably a decade older than Jake, even if her youthful face and body begged to differ, and she was always being asked out by her colleagues and even a few bold seniors, but she always turned them down for some reason.

Miss Fletcher sat down on the bottom bunk perpendicular from the bunk Jake shoved Fu under moments ago.

"That language seems to be of a writing and character system developed by a very ancient civilization; most evidence that the world then was supposedly, according to the only artifact about it ever extracted, so well hidden that it was sworn that no one could find them ever again until a so-called 'chosen one' appeared. It was said that there were 4 nations back then and supernatural power, such as power to control the 4 main Chinese elements; water, wind, earth, and fire; was a very common site." Miss Fletcher told him.

'_The Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes, and Air Nomads. So the entire mystery is linked to that specific time in the past.'_ Jake thought.

"Did you find anything else?" he asked quickly; his curiosity piqued.

"There was also some kind of love story between a man from the 'Fire Nation' and a woman from the 'Water Tribes' and tells of a great war between the Fire Nation, where the country destroyed all of the 'Airbenders' in the 'Air Nomads' and then waged war…" her voice trailed off at the expression on Jake's face.

"But I believe that it is all foolishness; I mean, paranormal powers being controlled by humans?" she quickly said; her voice seemingly false to Jake.

"You'd be surprised on what people…believe." He contradicted and stood up.

"Thank you for your help, Ms. Fletcher." Jake began to walk towards the door and opened it; hoping that she wouldn't take it too personally.

She looked a bit surprised, Jake guessed that she hadn't had many men refuse her or 'brush her off' during her past few years, and then got up and walked to the door.

Just before she went, she took both of his hands and clasped them in hers.

"It was my pleasure. Jake, if you need any more help, do not hesitate to ask me." she added; holding on a bit longer than a teacher would hold a student's hand (even if the child was in preschool) and then walking out of the door.

* * *

"I swear, that lady was coming on to you." Fu dog said as Jake tried to pull him out of the drawer.

So far, there was next to no progress; Jake had tried Vaseline, then butter, and even cooking oil, but it seemed that Fu was absorbing those slippery substances into his fur.

"I know. Scary, isn't it?" Jake tugged and heaved one last time and with a suction-like pop, Fu Dog finally slid out.

"Anyway, kid; what are you going to do about gramps?" Fu asked; rubbing his layers of skin a bit.

There were still a few nerve endings on the skin and it did kind of hurt when Jake pulled him out like that.

"Try my luck in breaking the code; he has the Eucronos hourglass, remember?" Jake replied.

"Suit yourself. I have to go and man the shop." Fu said; trying to reach the window.

"It's nearly ten o'clock at night." Jake commented.

"Well, when else would creatures of the night appear?" Fu replied; slipping out the window.

"AUGH!" he shouted when he swung over and crashed on the ground.

Jake looked out of the open window.

"I'm okay."

* * *

No luck. And three whole days had passed!

Not to mention that India was suffering a widespread drought that had nearly wiped out the water supply while in Finland, angry and relentless blizzards were freezing many of its natural lakes and water supply was only obtained by melting the almost-impossibly cold ice.

* * *

Still none, but he hadn't had time to research much due to a new set of math problems from his strict professor and too many assignments, and he had spent four hours procrastinating on that Saturday alone and trying to find out the cipher.

In the past few days, Japan has been hit with dozens of earthquakes; some of them even toppling buildings originally thought to be indestructible against such seismic faults and Antarctica was freezing (literally) to death! The poor penguins.

* * *

Day after day, there were more disaster reports pouring in.

Tornado alley was now having hot spots gush out and many citizens were being forced to evacuate.

Dust storms tore through Mexico and seismic activity nearly made the foundation on which Mexico City was built upon collapse.

Argentina and Chile were being hit over and over again by icy storms that formed in the South Pole while pilots could not pilot through the Andes mountains, or any other mountain belts; so to speak, because the winds always blew upwards shards of ice and snow that would stick onto their front view glass.

But still, Jake believed that he could solve what was going on, correct whatever it was, and then get on with his life.

How wrong he was.

* * *

_'It's time to swallow my pride.'_ Jake thought as he pulled his car to a stop in front of his grandpa's store.

Coming inside, he saw that it was nearly empty save for Fu.

"Any luck, kid?" he asked when he saw Jake.

"Nope. I think we need to go back into the past itself or something, but Gramps was the last person to possess the Eucronos Hourglass and I doubt that there is a second one." Jake replied.

Fu dog thought for a moment then had an idea.

"Kid, how fast can you find a portal to the magical dimension? I think there is a solution." He told Jake.

"I'm on it; Dragon Up!"

It had been quite a while since he had transformed, but he still pulled it off.

"Next stop, magical portal." He called as he flew high into the sky with Fu on his back.

* * *

"How is this exactly going to help us?" Jake asked as he observed the 'Magical Flea Market'.

There were creepy items on sale and even creepier vendors selling them; mermaids sitting on fish tanks filled with water, nymphs and sirens trying to lure people to purchase something much like a coyote girl would, ugly witches with large moles on their faces; crooking their skinny and yellow fingers to any passing person to come closer, little talking geckos trying to sell shrinking potions, talking golden retrievers selling 'hair shiner' and modeling their own products, harpies with their claws out; ready to grab anyone and drag them to the-four-dragons-know-where, the list went on and on.

"We just need one particular item; don't mind them, kid." Fu replied; stopping in his tracks.

"Wuh-oh." He said; feeling Jake trip over him.

"What? What is it?" Jake asked.

"It's Pugsy; I owe him quite a lot, so…we'd better split." Fu said quickly; grabbing Jake by the leg and running.

For a stubby and fat dog, he could sure run fast.

Fu dragged Jake into a very cramped one-room store that had the aura of being an apothecary's workshop; only the things that lined the shelves weren't exactly your average potion-making ingredients.

Eyes and tales and tongues and snouts and arms and legs and bodies in every color, kind, shape and size, pickled animals, strange liquids, from the ceiling hung little plates with small candles on them and also bits of garlic, strange things that vaguely resembled food, and shriveled up things that looked like shrunken heads! At the center of the table, there was a cauldron over an open fire and a book stand with a large, metal-bound book.

Suddenly, someone else slipped into the room.

Jake turned; seeing an old and vertically-challenged lady (at least, he thinks it was a lady) who had a wrinkly and saggy face pocketed with liver spots to the point where he could barely see her eyes, wore many printed fabrics, most of them just tied around her, and with hair from her eyebrows and head springing upwards from her head; a very freaky look which she tried to hide behind a hat.

"Can I help you?" she asked; her voice unnaturally high.

"Yes. Do you still happen to have a 'copy mirror'?" Fu dog asked the old lady.

The short lady stared long and hard at Fu out of—what seemed to be—her only good eye.

"I know you—!" her voice rose with indignation and outrage.

"Lady, please calm down; I'm sure a lot of other people look like me, but—!"

"You're the dog who stole my things and set my store on fire!" she interrupted; about to charge towards the Shar-Pei when Jake stopped her.

"We are only here to try and find a copy mirror, like Fu said. It is for a very important mission." He told her.

The old lady looked at him skeptically, but nodded anyway.

She took out, though it looked more like she conjured one from her purse, a ladder and climbed it; rummaging through a box on the top shelf of her store before she took out a mirror that looked more like a collection of silver mist.

Jake took it and, after Fu coughed up enough money, they left.

"How is this exactly going to help us?" Jake asked; about to look at himself in the mirror when Fu Dog pulled it down.

"Rule number one; never look in the mirror. If you do, something…will happen, ok? Anyway; now, we need a picture of the Eucronos Hourglass." Fu told him.

Just then, Jake glimpsed of a television—they actually had television here?—and looked in horror at what he saw.

The place looked like a picture Hong Kong he had seen when he was five, but the difference between his memory and the TV was that it was being torn from its roots by tornadoes and flooded by tsunamis.

"What the—?" Jake then remembered that the last time a disaster like that occurred, that self-unwinding and self-writing scroll wrote something in red ink and then it faded within minutes of being written.

If he didn't hurry, he would miss the next message!

"We have other things on our hands now; never mind avoiding Pugsy!" Jake shouted; grabbing Fu and flying as fast as he could out of the mystical world and, being forced to turn back into his human form, ran as fast as his legs would take him to the New York Smithsonian.

* * *

The red message was still there; only a bit of it had faded.

Jake pulled out a notepad, he had started keeping them ever since the messages appeared, and copied out as neatly and quickly as he could.

What he needed was a Rosetta Stone, just like the one Egyptologists had discovered; ergo making it possible for them to read hieroglyphics, for this scroll.

"Jake?" a voice sounded from behind him.

Nearly throwing the pencil over his shoulder because of his sudden arm jerk, Jake turned and tried to maintain his normally cool stature and was suddenly locking eyes with Miss Fletcher.

"Oh—good…evening, Miss Fletcher." Jake said quickly; his mind already calculating.

In the past weeks he had tried to solve the riddle, wherever he went, it seemed as if Miss Fletcher was following him.

Usually, when she would meet up with him somewhere, she would smile and say "This is a coincidence" or something else along that line.

Too many 'coincidences' have occurred to the point that Jake was suspicious; was she a part of some other organization similar to the huntsclan? Was she a spy or, as his grandpa had said, a descendant of someone who was destroying the future from the past?

"What are you doing here?" she asked carefully; noting that he seemed to be blocking the display glass behind him.

"Admiring the antiquities; my Chinese family's side can trace its ancestors back to this royal family, you know." Jake replied; it was a very old excuse, one his grandfather had told him to say, and it always seemed to work for some reason.

"I never knew that." Miss Fletcher said; coming a bit closer to Jake.

They were alone—ALONE—in that room, as Jake just noticed. _'Crap!'_ he thought; his eyes darting back to the scroll.

The last of the message had faded.

"Uh—well, I have to be going now." Jake told his teacher quickly; grabbing his stuff and about to run out the door.

"Jake, you seem nervous and since we are both alone tonight, would you like to come with me for a bit of tea?" Miss Fletcher asked him; her bright amber eyes holding a strange look.

"Uh—I'm not sure that the school policy allows such conduct between a student and his teacher. And I have to help out at my granddad's shop today. See you Monday, Miss Fletcher." Jake quickly said and didn't care if he ran out of there; it was creepy enough that she seemed to be giving him 'the eyes' but the tea thing sounded almost like it was a date to him!

And really; what's creepier than a teacher practically molesting you?

Especially if that teacher would go so far as to use your grade and future as a leverage to get you to do what she wanted?

* * *

Review, please. 


	3. Chapter 2: Prelude to Time Traveling

Sorry I haven't had time to update; the summer is busier for me than the school year! I had to do a lot of summer assignments, and some extra credit that came with it, and had to study for the SATs and my upcoming subjects! Sorry again!

Disclaimer: I do not own American Dragon Jake Long.

* * *

Chapter 2: Mirrors don't just promote vanity

"I told you; she's hitting on you." Fu Dog declared when Jake came out from the Smithsonian and told him what happened.

"She's probably almost twenty years older than I am and I've grown a bit skeptical about females who are, as you call it, 'coming on to me.'" Jake replied.

"But did you SEE her body? Whoo! If I weren't a doggy and the laws about interbreeding weren't set in—." To Jake, Fu Dog seemed to be pathetically trying to do a humping motion.

"Yeah; just keep fantasizing and don't let the world know, k?" he told the shar-pei.

"Aww, come on, Jakie-boy. Getting with her might have its benefits." Since Jake had grown much taller, Fu had to settle for putting his hand across Jake's thigh.

Jake jerked his leg away.

"I don't do that, especially not with my female teachers; that's just wrong." He snapped.

"And you're still sore about Rose." Fu sighed; rubbing his wrinkled head. When was he going to get over that girl? And whatever happened to that other girl; Danica?

"It's not that either. I won't take advantage of Miss Fletcher's advances; however unsubtle they might be. Every guy on campus wants her because she's hot and they think that she could boost their grades and they'd get bragging points if they sleep with her. I'm not like that; you should know that yourself." With every word, his tone got colder; like cascading ice.

"I was just joking; jeez." Fu Dog grumbled.

"What about the mirror?" Jake asked; indicating to his satchel where he carried it.

"We still need a reference to the hourglass. What about your picture in the 1980's?" Fu asked.

"That one doesn't even show the hourglass." Jake replied.

"Kid, you've really got to start taking pictures of all of the magical items you acquire." Fu said exasperatedly.

"Anyway, you continue with your studies; I'll try and find what we need." Fu told him when they reached the noodle shop and he got out of Jake's car.

"By the way, kid; don't look so down. I spoke to the Oracle Twins a few days ago and Sara did talk about your future; a certain person should be coming on your horizon pretty soon." Before Jake could ask, Fu slammed the door and went into the Noodle Shop; leaving a very stunned yet still puzzled Jake clutching the steering wheel.

* * *

He couldn't even focus on his Ancient World History class anymore!

Fu Dog hadn't contacted him for days, he was losing sleep and concentration about what he said about the Oracle Twins and their 'prediction' of a certain person, and he now needed to avoid Miss Fletcher just because.

He hadn't been called upon to be the American Dragon for years and now, the moment he unofficially is, he can't do anything!

Life was just SO grand.

* * *

"Impeccable once again, Jake." His Ancient World History teacher said as she handed back to him his essay on the Ancient World legends of 'The Four Nations'.

"Thank you." He had gotten used to his classmates being jealous since he seemed to slum at everything else, but earn endless praise in this class.

"But please, tell me; no one else who did this project had such an in-depth perspective on this ancient world. How did you do it?" the teacher pressed.

"I researched the world a lot and read most of the myths about it years before." Jake replied_.'And journeyed to that world and switched places with a sixteen year old prince 5 years ago.'_ He mentally added.

"Good for you." She said to him.

Just then, the door burst open. It was some freshman.

"There's a dog outside who seems to be talking!" he shouted.

At once, the class rose up and began to pour out of the classroom in spite of their teacher's shouts of "In the name of New York, what are you all doing?"

Jake ran too; was it Fu, coming with some kind of news?

Left, left again, right and they were out on campus.

It was a difficult feat pushing through all of the other freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, but Jake managed the task and, after shoving a very tall kid out of the way, saw it was a small Yorkie; whether it was a very young puppy or one of those specially bred ones that could fit into a teacup, Jake couldn't tell.

The dog turned and looked directly at him; its glossy black eyes seemingly analyzing him to see if he was the right person.

Without warning, the little dog ran towards him and jumped as high as it could; landing on Jake's shoulder.

"What the—?" Jake began; trying to pull the dog off of him, but it seemed to have the claws of a cat and held steadily onto his shirt.

"I have a message for you." It 'barked' in his ear.

"Not here." Jake whispered quietly; knowing he would seem crazy if he had said it loudly enough for others to hear.

"I think whoever thought that this dog could talk needs to see a doctor soon. I'll take this to its owner." Jake said aloud to the others crowding around him.

Managing to break free from the crowd, Jake walked and refused to speak to the dog until he was sure that he was out of sight and hearing by the others.

"Alright, what is it?" he asked after looking around three more times to 'double-check' that he and the dog were alone.

The Yorkie seemed miffed; the little thing had quite the ego.

"Hmph; if you would go so far as to treat me like a common dog, maybe you do not want to be the receiver of such news." The small pet replied.

It took a while before Jake could humble himself up enough to not point out to the dog that in this world, he really was a dog and ordinary dogs could not talk and that his ego needed a shooting, but he miraculously found the words and apologized to the Yorkie.

The Yorkie seemed to relish Jake's apology and wore a smug look on his face afterwards.

"Good boy." It said snottily.

Jake let the insult cut at him and grabbed the piece of paper that was the message the instant the Yorkie showed it to him.

* * *

After classes were over, he dashed back to his dormitory before he thought it would be safe to open it.

The letter simply said _'no progress, what about you, kid? —Fu'_

So Fu had sent this self-aggrandizing Yorkie all the way here just to deliver a message with only seven words; no wonder the little dog was so disgruntled.

Jake flopped down on his bed; his head already clouded with thoughts.

There was another knock at his door and Jake, hoping that it wasn't Miss Fletcher, went over and looked through the hole.

It was the Dean.

What was he doing here and, more importantly, why did he want to see Jake?

Panic began to surge through his body; what if he was in trouble?

And not just in trouble for running out on class, which is more or less a minor offense; considering that kids have been known to run out of school almost every day of the week, maybe BIG trouble!

Jake racked his brains for some logical reason on why the Dean was making a visit to his dormitory at this hour.

Well, there WAS that Firecracker incident at the beginning of the year, but he doubted that anyone saw him.

It couldn't be because of that Freshman party; there was no proof whatsoever that he had taken part in smuggling the alcohol in, nor could it be the prank in the Locker Rooms of the boys Lacrosse team…

Jake tensed. Could it be that they had found the password to the floppy disk they took away from him a few weeks ago; the disk holding a VERY tabooed…document taking up a few megabytes on there?

"No. N-No way." Jake reassured himself and, with a deep breath, turned the cold knob with his cold hand.

He twisted the knob and pulled the door open; trying to maintain his cool façade.

"Good evening, Dean." He said politely; hoping that his voice did not stumble.

"Good evening, Mister Long." He said stiffly and Jake was reminded of Rotwood by the Dean's tone and diction. He also seemed to be surveying around the almost-empty dorm; three available beds, a desk, much closet space, and very roomy in general.

"I assume that there is a reason you are paying me such a visit at this hour?" Jake said; remembering that this was the best way to address the Dean. If you didn't beat around the bush, neither did the Dean and he would be out of your personal space much faster.

"Yes, I received an interesting report about you…" the Dean began, and Jake stiffened.

"'K." Jake replied; forgetting for a moment that the Dean disliked slang of any sort and he (Jake) had once gotten in trouble because he said 'Wiggedy Whack' in his (the Dean's) hearing range.

"It is better to say 'Oh-kay', must I remind you, Mister Long." The Dean replied to Jake's slip-up.

"Alright. What's up?" Strike two and three; even if it was 'Alright', the Dean always thought that such a word was only a syllable away from "a'ight".

"I suppose a case like you cannot be helped. We can speak in the morning in my office. Eight o'clock sharp, do not be late. I expect you not to, Mister Long." The Dean said crisply and walked in that stiff manner he was famous for.

"What's with him?" Jake asked; shutting the door.

He flopped down onto his bunk; deep in thought.

He had this creepily-friendly teacher who seemed to be coming on to him and a Dean who was probably searching at this moment for some reason that he could get Jake to leave the school; maybe he should get a transfer.

* * *

"I finally got it!" Fu Dog shouted to Jake over the phone.

"Huh?" Jake mumbled sleepily; pawing at the table closest to him for a clock.

"Kid, are you listening?" Fu demanded as Jake held the cordless digital clock closer to his eyes so his bleary vision could read and comprehend the numbers.

"FOUR IN THE MORNING?" Jake shouted; his response to Fu's call.

"Whatever. Come down to the shop; I got the duplicate hourglass ready." Fu instructed.

"But it's a school day and four AM; I'll get in trouble if I'm supposedly sneaking out of the campus. Not to mention that it'll look suspicious and give the Dean a chance to gaze disdainfully on me even more and get me in trouble with the NYU council." Jake mumbled the last sentence to himself.

"I'll forge a note for Gramps, saying that there was some emergency; just get here as fast as you can!" Fu yelled before hanging up.

Jake flipped shut his cell phone and pocketed it; in the past few days, semi-paranormal disasters wreaking across the America which was his duty to protect, Jake had made a habit of sleeping in his day clothes and smoothing out the wrinkles when he got up, in his jeans.

Getting up and quickly rinsing out his mouth with Listerine, Jake opened the screen-less window in his dorm and set one foot onto the thin platform.

Holy crap, it was cold; more paranormal activity, he guessed.

"Dragon up." He was surprised at how much he seemed to hiss out the words like someone else, but he just couldn't put his finger on whom.

A few minutes later, he landed at 'Dragon's Noodles' (Long-de Mien), his grandpa's noodle shop, and entered.

The floor was covered in some kind of ritual circle and the smell of something burnt wafted through the air.

"What the—?" he began to ask, walking forward into the shop.

"Kid, no!" Fu dog shouted from somewhere else.

Suddenly, Jake felt himself being knocked off of his feet and thrown backwards; slamming into the doorframe of Long-de Mien.

He opened his eyes to find Fu slapping at his cheeks to try and wake him up; probably, he had been knocked unconscious by the huge blow backwards.

"You took quite a hit; you okay, kid?" he asked.

"Uh…Yeah, I'm fine." Jake said after feeling his back for any blood and finding none.

"Anyways, here." Fu said; waving what looked to be a Eucronos Hourglass in front of his eyes.

"What am I supposed to do with it? We don't even know where—er, when—Gramps is." Jake pointed out.

"But most of it seems to revolve around Scar-boy and his elemental opposite girlfriend." Fu Dog pointed out.

"Zuko and Katara? You want me to travel back to their time, then what?" Jake asked.

"I dunno, but remember not to do anything that might screw up the time continuum; any effect you have on the past, no matter how small you think it is, will affect the future. Got it, kid?" Fu Dog asked; setting up the mock-Eucronos hourglass.

"Got it." Jake simply replied.

"Oh, and one more thing! Whatever you do, don't—!" Fu Dog began, but his memory and speech was too slow; before he could deliver the full message, Jake disappeared.

For a second, Fu Dog was blinded by the light.

After he had gotten over the initial reactions, he noticed that…there was nobody else in the shop!

Jumping onto the counter, he picked up the phone and dialed a long number.

"Hey Ernie, tell everyone else; there's a party at my shop!"

* * *

Fu Dog! You should be ashamed! 


	4. Chapter 3: What could go wrong

Wow, how long has it been? I'm sorry about my absence; I can't even remember a time when I went on so long a slump. Anyways, enjoy the chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender nor do I own American Dragon Jake Long.

Oh, and just a heads up: Rose probably won't appear in this series for a while, possibly the next chapter at the earliest. I'm just trying to find a way to write her in as of now.

* * *

Chapter 3: What Could Go Wrong...

"It's another threatening letter from that group." Zuko told her; reading its contents.

For several weeks, ever since their engagement was announced, Zuko and Katara had been receiving threats from both the Fire Nation and Water Tribes in response. Surprisingly, and ironically, both sides thought that the fiancé(e) was not good enough for the 'significant other' and that the fiancé(e) itself was nothing but a barbaric savage.

"Why can't anyone accept that we are to be married?" Katara asked with a sigh.

"D'you think that it was too early to announce it?" Zuko questioned; looking over the edge of the cliff towards the ocean.

"We've waited for over a year; most of the primary turmoil has been settled, and it…should have been safe." Katara sighed; wrapping her arms around one of his.

With a laugh, the first one in quite a few weeks, Zuko leaned forward to close the distance. All of a sudden, a blue flash filled their eyes and Katara found herself being shoved backwards while a familiar acquaintance of theirs took that kiss.

It took about three seconds for the two to realize that it was them and their lips that had been pressed against each other's. Reeling back, Jake and Zuko both threw themselves onto the ground; spitting and gagging profusely.

"A-Are you alright?" Katara asked; desperately trying to bite back the laughter that had manifested itself into her throat.

Zuko spat again; looking up at his fiancée. "Alright? I just locked lips with another man!" he almost shouted.

"Don't be such a homophobe." Jake said, standing up to brush at his dirtied clothes. He didn't like it either, thank you very much, but that was no reason to make it seem worse than it already was.

"Well, what are you doing here?" Katara asked as she helped her fiancé up.

"Long story. Long story short, in the future, there is something wrong and all of these paranormal events are somehow linked to you two in this time period. Someone is trying to eliminate both of you and we have to do something quickly. My grandpa tried to go back in time and right whatever wrong there was, but we've lost contact with him; so we also have to find him." Jake summarized.

"Maybe it's correlated with this." Zuko said; showing Jake the note.

"Um…boy from a different part of a time continuum who can barely read the modern Chinese his grandpa writes; see any problems there?" the nineteen year old said; waving the note.

"Oh, right. Basically, it's threatening us; that there will be an international insurrection if we marry." Zuko said.

"Well, congratulations, for the marriage, I mean." Jake said; then looked around. "Come on, we've got to get busy."

"But what can we do? The group members can be anyone; nobody knows much about them and even if they did, nobody tells." Zuko sighed; rubbing at his temples.

"Well, we've gotta start somewhere; who do you know would want to—um…eliminate, let's say—one or both of you guys?" As Jake was asking that question, Zuko saw something moving within the bamboo and a sharp glint of metal.

"Watch out!" he shouted; nearly tackling Jake as a silver dagger flew past their thighs and stuck onto the ground.

Katara sprung into action immediately; a water blade cut through the bamboo where the attacker supposedly was, but as the severed ends clattered to the ground, it was clear that he or she had gotten away. Zuko cursed under his breath.

"You know what? Maybe right now is a little too dangerous. Let's try this." Jake pulled out the mock-Eucronos hourglass and turned it forwards.

A flash, again, appeared, and then Jake found himself to be back in his dorm room.

"Where are we?" Zuko asked; pushing Jake off of him and standing up.

"We're at NYU, a university, and this is my dorm room." Jake explained, then noticed the messy state of his room. _'Oops.' _He thought.

"Kid, you're back—WHAT DID YOU DO?" Fu Dog shouted upon seeing Zuko and Katara.

"I couldn't talk with them back in their own time so I brought them here." Jake replied, to which Fu slapped his own forehead.

"You idiot! Do you have any idea what you can do to the Time Continuum if you bring figures from the past into the future?" the overweight shar-pei shouted.

"Look, as soon as we get this fixed, we can send them back to their own time period!" Jake said irritably.

"And how long will that take? You still have no leads on who, why all this stuff is happening, and you might have permanently altered history! Jeez!" Fu was screaming by then.

"Mister Long!" a voice from his doorway sounded.

"Oh, shit. It's the Dean." Jake whispered; running to the window.

"Sorry about this, Fu." He said; then shut the window on the dog's fingertips. A muffled scream of pain was heard, but nothing louder than that.

"Quick! Sit! Act natural!" Jake dragged the other two to the vacant bottom bunk and pushed them onto it and, with a quick straightening of his clothes, opened the door.

"I came to investigate a noise disturbance." The Dean said slowly and crisply.

"Sorry, it was just me and my new roomies." Jake nodded towards Zuko and Katara, who were sitting up.

Upon seeing the scar on Zuko's face, the Dean cringed and then turned back to Jake; perplexed.

"I have not received any notification about new students." He said; again very slowly.

"These were last minute transfers; the papers will probably be on your desk the next morning." Jake fibbed.

"May I ask what their names are?" the elder said briskly.

"Sure. This is...Zeki, and he's from Turkey. Isn't that a laugh?" Jake asked; giving a few laughs for good measure. The dean did not look amused.

"And the lady?"

"That's Kat, which is more of a nickname considering that her real name is Katarellia, and she was teased so much when she was younger because of her name being so close to Cinderella's."

"I see. Well, I will be going to check for the papers. Good night." The Dean said and turned.

When Jake closed the door, both 'Zeki' and 'Kat' were staring at him.

"What? Those were the only things that I could think of." Jake protested.

"What happened to the talking dog?" Katara asked; looking towards the window.

"Fu!" Jake shouted; rushing over to the window and throwing it open.

"A warning would have sufficed." Fu snapped at him as Jake pulled him into the room.

"Sorry, really. Anyways, what can we do?" Jake asked; glancing over at Zuko and Katara.

Fu Dog sighed; knowing that the time span was up. When he'd made the copy of the Eucronos Hourglass, which was technically a very powerful magical device, a rule was incited in the Magical Realm's year of 1295 stated that a powerful magical item to the eighth degree or above could not be completely duplicated. As time passed, some crafty people found a few loopholes and ways to get around the decree, but there was still the catch that the user of the duplicated magical item was allowed only an hour—believe it or not, an hour had almost passed when Jake came back to the modern world—before the magical object would cease to work and disappear.

"Well, let's at least find them some clothes." Fu replied.

* * *

"How does it fit?" Jake asked from the other side of the door.

"It's…a little tight." Zuko replied; opening the door.

Dressed in Jake's old shirt and a pair of jeans, he looked almost like another guy; if you ignore the scar and hair, the longest part almost touching his shoulders, and the fact that his posture was regally straight.

"Uh…right. We can say that you shopped in Europe." Jake offered.

"I still don't understand why we have to be here." Zuko said; pulling at the shirt.

"It's obviously too dangerous for you two to go back to your own time, besides; I need your help." Jake said.

"Well, there are still those papers you were talking about; how can you get them there?" Katara asked.

"I made a few calls; don't worry." Jake flopped down onto the top bunk; wiggling around a bit out of habit. "Anyways, good night."

Long after his snores filled the air, Katara poked Zuko awake from her top bunk. "He drags us here, gives us new clothes, and still doesn't tell us anything." She whispered. "Not the best host in the world." Zuko conceded.

* * *

"…And so, this is Zeki and Kat." Jake introduced them by his made-up names.

Politely, Zuko and Katara said a few words to the students who listened to Jake, and were staring at them for whatever reason, and took their seats. A few minutes later, the teacher entered the large room and immediately began his lesson.

"Did you have any luck with those messages?" Jake whispered to them.

"It looks like an ancient form of Fire Nation writing." Zuko whispered back; remembering his lessons.

"Do you know any of it?" Jake questioned, to which the other male shook his head.

For once, Jake didn't bother to pay attention to the lecture; there was this feeling in his gut that whatever was written in the supposedly un-decipherable cipher would be the grand answer, and his current thoughts were clinging to his mind as if someone had pasted it in there with krazy-glue.

After another hour of whatever it was—weapons, or something else that had to do with warfare—that the professor was talking about, the session ended.

Once they were outside, Katara placed a hand on Zuko's shoulder; feeling his body shake.

"Zuko, don't—." she began.

"Did you hear what he was saying? '…they were, in every sense, savages; they destroyed and plundered, everything you'd heard about when reading those stereotypical good versus evil books, and then some…'? That is a damn lie!" He hissed.

"Dude, that's biased history; I'm sure the Fire Nation didn't skewer babies or rape every woman they saw…" The glare from Zuko's eye seemed to misplace Jake's voice box.

"Look, do you think I found it any better? He called people of my kind dumb cowards, just because they weren't successful in combat for their first few battles!" Katara sighed angrily.

"Okay, before either of you do something rash, remember that this era is a time when humans can't control water or fire; let's just go." Steadily, Jake pulled at their jacket cuffs and guided them back to the dormitory.

"Cut him some slack; he fought in at least three wars and his side has always had the short end of the stick. He keeps saying to us, those whoever-else-was-their-ally came in late, and got all the credit. He's just cynical." Jake tried to explain.

"He called my people cowardly, lazy, and self-aggrandizing!" Katara protested.

"Even if that's true, I mean him being cynical, does it give him the right to criticize the supposed enemy? Or is he really that bigoted?" Zuko demanded.

"Come on; yes, he probably did overly praise the Earth Kingdom for its 'valiant efforts' and for 'fighting the full war' but—." The combined glare of fire and ice was too much; even for the American Dragon.

A knock at the door broke off their stream of conversation. Upon opening it, Jake came into contact with a stack of duffel bags and what looked to be old-fashioned hat boxes.

"Uh…Hi." At the sound of his voice, the person dropped the boxes.

"Jake!" She exclaimed. The young woman before him looked strangely familiar; Jake just couldn't put his finger on it. He gazed from her long wavy chestnut hair to her tan skin and dark eyes to her small nose to her lip gloss-covered lips…nothing.

He looked at her hands, the striped polo shirt that she wore, her black skirt, still nothing.

He stepped back for a moment, to see the whole of her, and then it hit him. "Oh, hey, you!" _What was her name? What was her name?_ Jake thought desperately.

* * *

Oh, gosh, Jake! You're in big trouble if you don't remember a girl's name.

Again, I'm sorry for my long absence; it has been too long. I resolve to update my stories more often this year.


End file.
